Latest Cataclysm Hotfixes: Vial of the Sands No Longer BOP!

Another day, another batch of Cataclysm hotfixes. This latest batch includes a number of dungeon, raid and quest fixes. However, the most notable changes this time around include a number of profession-specific changes, including one extremely major one:

Tower of Radiance no longer grants Holy Power from Holy Lights cast on a target buffed with Beacon of Light. It continues to work as the tooltip describes for Flash of Light and Divine Light. Please note the tooltip may not be updated to reflect this change until a client-side patch is applied.

Healing done by Beacon of Light is now properly affected by healing modifiers on targets which reduce healing done (i.e. Mortal Strike).

The healing done by Light of Dawn has been reduced by approximately 40%. Please note the tooltip may not be updated to reflect this change until a client-side patch is applied.

Battleground Demolishers in Strand of the Ancients have had their health lowered in all Battleground brackets except for the level 80-84 range, where their health has been increased.

Lifegiving Seeds can no longer be used in Battlegrounds.

Classes

Hunters

Players who have the Insanity debuff can't benefit from Time Warp until the debuff has expired. Players can no longer benefit from both Ancient Hysteria and Time Warp prior to the Insanity Debuff fading.

Mages

Frostfire Orb cannot trigger Fingers of Frost if Rank 2 of Frostfire Orb is not learned. Fingers of Frost functions normally otherwise. Note that the debuff will still appear on the target until a client-side patch is applied to correct this display issue.

Paladins

Zealotry no longer consumes the Hand of Light proc effect.

Tower of Radiance no longer grants Holy Power from Holy Lights cast on a target buffed with Beacon of Light. It continues to work as the tooltip describes for Flash of Light and Divine Light. Please note the tooltip may not be updated to reflect this change until a client-side patch is applied.

Healing done by Beacon of Light is now properly affected by healing modifiers on targets which reduce healing done (i.e. Mortal Strike).

The healing done by Light of Dawn has been reduced by approximately 40%. Please note the tooltip may not be updated to reflect this change until a client-side patch is applied.

Dungeons & Raids

The Looking For Dungeon random bracket for Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Caverns has been changed from level 80-81 to 80-82, and the specific bracket has been changed from level 80-83 to 80-85.

Blackrock Caverns

Twilight Dragonkin Armorers in Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Caverns now always drop some sort of loot. Get your Shimmering Claws while they're fresh!

Blackwing Descent

All four golems are now immune to Distract in the Omnotron Defense Council encounter.

Poison Bombs in the Golem Council encounter will now only attack and explode on targets they're fixated on.

The gate beyond Magmaw and Omnotron should not close after the bosses are killed if a soft reset takes place.

The Orb of Culmination will now properly respawn after a soft reset takes place.

Deadmines

Ripsnarl's Summon Vapor mechanic now ignores line of sight and correctly spawns a Vapor in regardless of where players are standing.

Glubtok can now be looted even if the party dies before he finishes his dramatic death sequence.

Grim Batol

Impaling Slam by Forgemaster Throngus now does much less damage, but is no longer mitigated by fire resistance.

Players can now zone into the dungeon while another player is in combat with a boss.

Halls of Origination

Brann now correctly begins his event for "Heart of the Matter" if the player is mounted when the quest is accepted.

There is now a teleportation device present at the front of the dungeon once Temple Guardian Anhuur has been defeated.

Throne of the Four Winds

You are now able to drink and eat after the party wipes. It's a sad day, after all, when the dead can't even enjoy delicious food and drink.

The Ravenous Creepers in the Conclave of Wind encounter now properly retarget players on the western platform when their aggro target moves to another platform. Even when no players are available to target on the platform the Creepers will retarget any new player who arrives on the platform.

The Vortex Pinnacle

Characters who become stuck in a Slipstream are now properly dropped after a period of time and brought back to the platform via the Fall Catcher.

Items

Amulet of Dull Dreaming and Acorn of the Daughter Tree had duplicate stats. That's no fun for anyone! Amulet of Dull Dreaming has a critical strike rating of 112 and a haste rating of 112. Acorn of the Daughter Tree has a mastery rating of 116 and a haste rating of 107.

Captured Lightning from The Vortex Pinnacle now correctly has Spirit instead of hit rating. The item tooltip may not properly update to reflect this change, but the appropriate stats should be applied to a character when the item is equipped.

Lifegiving Seeds can no longer be used in Battlegrounds.

Shroud of the Dead, purchased from the Ramkahen Quartermasters in Uldum, is no longer Bind-on-Equip.

Professions

The respawn rates for all Horde and Alliance Cooking daily quest objectives in Orgrimmar and Stormwind have been increased.

The Alchemy mount Vial of the Sands is no longer Bind-on-Pickup.

Corpses which have already been skinned should no longer sometimes remain, making players think they can still be skinned -- players who are then left saddened by false hopes.

Players are no longer able to apply the Eternal Belt Buckle on belts higher than item level 300.

The droprate on the Precious Locket from Royal Monkfish in Stormwind waters for the Fishing daily quest "Big Gulp" has been increased.

Ethereal Ink sold by vendors was too expensive and now trades at a 1:1 ratio with Blackfallow Ink.

Obsidium Ore nodes now spawn more frequently in Deepholm.

Pristine Hides were too common and now have less of a chance to drop.

The gem cuts Timeless Nightstone, Jagged Jasper, and Solid Zephyrite can no longer create perfect versions of the cut.

Quests & Creatures

Cataclysm Zones

Deepholm

Players that are not on the quest "Wrath of the Fungalmancer", and are out of combat at the same time another player begins the Fungalmancer event, will not be placed into combat with Fungal Horrors that spawn during the encounter. All Fungal Horrors despawn as soon as Fungalmancer Glop is defeated. In addition, at no time should Fungalmancer Glop path through walls or terrain. Norsala respawns moments after a player completes the encounter.

The quest "Wayward Child" can now be completed with Therazane regardless of the phase the player is in.

Twilight Soulreapers and Defaced Earthragers no longer give any experience or loot when killed.

Mount Hyjal

All players who receive the raid victory message while on the quest "Prepping the Soil" will also receive quest objective completion.

Lava Surgers were caught red-handed showing no loot. Showing no loot of an almost broken nature. This will not do. (They now drop loot and can be mined.)

Tol Barad Peninsula

Wandering Souls will now always drop a Cursed Femur for the quest "Salvaging the Remains".

Darkwood Broodmothers and Darkwood Hatchlings were sharing spawn locations, sometimes preventing one of the creature types from spawning. This has been corrected.

The Magnatized Scrap Collector cannot be used outside the designated quest area.

Twilight Highlands

The cutscene for the quest "Enter the Dragon Queen" no longer breaks if someone skips the cutscene and more than one person is watching it.

The ever-sneaky Cayden Dunwald should now always get attacked during the escort quest "Once More Into The Fire".

Baited Black Drakes were Deathwing wannabes and doing way too much damage with their fire breath. This damage has been reduced to ensure there is only one king of pain.

To address a phasing conflict, players cannot accept "Somethin' For The Boys" until they've completed all three of the preceding quests, including "They Took Me Pants!"

Axebite Grunts now despawn whenever the siege tanks get healed and leave, or if they get destroyed. The Siege Tank Commanders are now flagged as immune creatures and no longer get stuck in combat, which prevented players from interacting with them for the quest "Siege Tank Rescue". In addition, players can no longer attack Siege Tank Commanders.

Darunga's respawn time for the quest "Doing It Like a Dunwald" has been reduced. In addition, the corpses of Darunga and Jaspertip Crystal-Gorgers should no longer linger around for an inordinate amount of time.

The Frothing Rage buff is now removed when players leave the zone.

The ogres in Glopgut's Hollow now respawn at a higher rate than before.

Uldum

Harrison Jones will now spawn at the exact same time as the Obsidian Colossus for the quest "Fortune and Glory".

Engaging in PvP combat in Ramkahen now properly spawns guards.

Wearing associated costumes for the quest "Firing Squad" when the cutscene plays should no longer result in event issues.

Kill credit is now awarded to all party members for both the regular and daily versions of the quest "Fire from the Sky". Missiles from other players are also visible to everyone now.

Elite Troopers were way too elite and had triple the armor they're supposed to have. We've stripped them of some of their precious protection.

All party members are now receiving credit for motivating a Slacking Laborer for the quest "Make Yourself Useful". This is 100% more useful.

Vashj'ir

The quest "Wake of Destruction" now only requires players to devour 10 naga.

Hallazeal the Ascended now despawns when a player leaves combat or logs out while being engaged with him.

At the conclusion of the final cutscene for "Defending the Rift", the quest completion NPC is visible for both factions.

The Nespirah Fluid buff is now removed when players enter a dungeon, raid, or Battleground.

Quest credit is now shared between party members when killing quest creatures for "Wake of Destruction".

Eastern Kingdoms

Eastern Plaguelands

Players should no longer have issues using Rayne's Seed in all three ziggurats for the quest "Amidst Death, Life".

The Cape of Stranglethorn

The Ironjaw Humour that drops off Ironjaw Behemoth for the quest "Too Big for His Britches" can now be looted by multiple members of a party.

Ghostlands

Goblin characters are now able to accept the quests “The Forsaken" and "Journey to Undercity".

Northern Stranglethorn

When reputation with the Bloodsail Buccaneers is friendly, players can now accept the quest "Avast Ye, Admiral!" from Fleet Master Firallon.

Swamp of Sorrows

The objects Thousand-Thread-Count Fuse, Extra-Pure Blasting Powder, and Stack of Questionable Publications for the quest "In with a Bang" now respawn more quickly.

Kalimdor

Southern Barrens

Silithid Swarmers no longer grant any experience or loot, and cannot be skinned when killed.

Stonetalon Mountains

The Stonetalon Mountains Quests achievement is now properly triggered after the 55th quest is completed.

Comment by Monday

Comment by Rilgon

Hooray, another profession that has its only source of individuality gutted out of it.

Comment by Clearly

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:41:01 -0600

Quite a few nice looking changes in there.

/sadface on losing the Belt Buckle, though.

Comment by Tarudizer

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:44:29 -0600

Still waiting for the troll flight form to be put in the game.

Comment by Melusina

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:46:48 -0600

Is it just me, or did the mana cost of Power Word: Fortitude just spike? I could have sworn it was only around 7500 yesterday, but it's over 10,000 today. It's making my random buffing at the portals a lot less entertaining when I can only do a couple.

Comment by Psychotic

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:47:09 -0600

These were hotfixes? Christ.

Comment by NeoBlackheart

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:49:16 -0600

well considering its like 1k a truegold bar right now at least 15 to 20k gold but you might can get it cheaper by farming the mats... much cheaper.

Comment by kintotech

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:51:24 -0600

Has reputation been fixed yet? Rep spillover hasn't been working properly for me for a while. :\"

Comment by Shinshiva

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:58:08 -0600

Wonder how much will Vial Of The Sand will cost on AH

24k + at least.

Comment by Grimmfear

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:12:58 -0600

I chuckled a wee bit at the holy paladin nerfs... I've got a holy paladin, but I play a holy priest.

Comment by Robotusch

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:42:08 -0600

Lava Surgers were caught red-handed showing no loot. Showing no loot of an almost broken nature. This will not do.

Pink floyd references?

In MY hotfix notes?

GTFO!

;)

Comment by Rasputin941827

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:45:12 -0600

So can the vial of the sands recipe be looted by someone not an alchemist?

Comment by stevebat

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:56:25 -0600

Hooray, another profession that has its only source of individuality gutted out of it.

Individuality? in alchemy? Please tell me you didn't take alchemy for anything besides profit or buffs that was its original intent.

Comment by Miyari

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:29:48 -0600

So can the vial of the sands recipe be looted by someone not an alchemist?

Yes, but the plans are probably still BOP.

Comment by Valknyte

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:39:34 -0600

Hooray, another profession that has its only source of individuality gutted out of it.

Individuality? in alchemy? Please tell me you didn't take alchemy for anything besides profit or buffs that was its original intent.

With the vendor only mats alone costing 29k, I doubt we will see too many around anyway.

Comment by TheReal

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:47:28 -0600

Hooray, another profession that has its only source of individuality gutted out of it.

Individuality? in alchemy? Please tell me you didn't take alchemy for anything besides profit or buffs that was its original intent.

With the vendor only mats alone costing 29k, I doubt we will see too many around anyway.

I'm sitting on 50k easy. I'd quickly lay down 29k if I knew I could turn that 29k into another 50k. And I could too.

Comment by Aislinge

on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:44:07 -0600

Zomg!

I think I peed a little! As a long suffering Alchemist, I'll happily accept this change for the following reasons:

a) I don't seem to make money like my pattern collecting friendsb) Alchemy has long missed out on anything with a wow factor

I akin this to the epic pattern/chant drops of the past and it's about time that Alchemist's have something that they can make some serious cash off (without the traditional snoring herbing if you have the good ol' herb/alch combo - fly, fly fly, ooo herb, fly fly fly zzzzzzz).

Comment by manof1337

on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:56:18 -0600

Obsidium Ore nodes now spawn more frequently in Deepholm.

Thank god; I was tempted just to leave my blacksmithing at 460 after grinding obsidium for half an hour getting two stacks and when I finally use it getting a grand total of 3 points after buying extra off the ah. hopefully now i can farm the outragous amount I need to get to elementium.

Comment by Edeta

on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:58:32 -0600

It would be cool if they fix the last boss in stonecore too ><For us she died during her 'flying above platform' phase and she fell INSIDE the platform = no body, no loot :/